HHS Designation of Additional Members of the 

Special Exposure Cohort 

under the 

Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 

Designating a Class of Employees from 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC) 

Fernald, Ohio
 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC), Fernald, Ohio
 
 

I. Designation 

I, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, designate the class 

of employees defined in Section II of this report for addition to the Special Exposure 

Cohort (SEC), as authorized under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. § 7384q. 

June 27, 2012 [Signature on File]_____

 Date Kathleen Sebelius 

II. Employee Class Definition 

All employees of DOE, DOE contractors, or subcontractors who worked at all 

locations at the Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC) in Fernald, Ohio, 

also known as the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP), from 

January 1, 1968, through December 31, 1978, for a number of work days 

aggregating at least 250 work days, occurring either solely under this 

employment or in combination with work days within the parameters 

established for one or more classes of employees included in the Special 

Exposure Cohort. 

III. Designation Criteria and Recommendations 

Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, for the class defined in Section II of this report, the 

Secretary has determined, and the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health 

(Board) has recommended, that 

(1) it is not feasible to estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation dose that the 

class received; and 

(2) there is a reasonable likelihood that such radiation dose may have 

endangered the health of members of the class. 

The SEC final rule states in 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1) that it is feasible in two situations 

to estimate the radiation dose that the class received with sufficient accuracy. First, 

the rule states that radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient accuracy if 

NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to estimate the 

maximum radiation dose for every type of cancer for which radiation doses are 

reconstructed that could have been incurred under plausible circumstances by any 

member of the class. Alternatively, radiation doses may be estimated with sufficient 

accuracy if NIOSH has established that it has access to sufficient information to 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate. 

The Board, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384q, advised the Secretary to designate the 

class as an addition to the SEC in a letter received by the Secretary on June 1, 2012. 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Page 2 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC), Fernald, Ohio 
IV. Designation Findings 

Feasibility of Estimating Radiation Doses with Sufficient Accuracy 

The Secretary established the feasibility determination for the class of employees 

covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below. 

	 The principal source of internal radiation doses for members of the proposed 

class was airborne uranium particulate material. This dust could be inhaled by 

workers and then deposited in the respiratory tract. In addition to uranium, which 

is the primary radionuclide contributing to internal dose at the Feed Materials 

Production Center (FMPC, also known as Fernald) exposure to various other 

radionuclides could have occurred. The other radionuclides of concern include 

thorium and the associated decay products, uranium decay products (including 

radium and the associated decay products), fission/activation products, and 

transuranics (recycled uranium contaminants). This Designation addresses only 

internal exposures to Thorium-232 (hereinafter referred to as thorium) and its 

decay products for the time period from January 1, 1968, through December 31, 

1978. 

	 The FMPC processed thorium intermittently through the period from January 1, 

1951, through December 31, 1989, using several different chemical and physical 

processes. Additionally, FMPC utilized different monitoring programs for different 

time periods. Specifically, from 1968 to 1988, FMPC used the Mobile In Vivo 

Radiation Monitoring Laboratory (MVRML) technique to monitor workers’ 

exposure to thorium. In its evaluation report, NIOSH proposes to use data from 

the MIVRML to perform dose reconstructions. To do so, NIOSH performed 

considerable research to determine the algorithm that the MIVRML utilized to 

convert gamma ray measurements to thorium milligrams for the years 1968-

1978. 

	 Ultimately, the NIOSH Director and the Board determined that MIVRML results 

expressed as thorium milligrams could not be interpreted with confidence and 

consequently the reconstructed doses based on such an approach may not be 

done with sufficient accuracy. Therefore, the Board and the NIOSH Director 

concluded that it was not feasible to reconstruct with sufficient accuracy doses 

from internal thorium exposures for the years 1968-1978. 

	 The principal sources of external radiation doses for members of the proposed 

class include uranium, thorium and their associated decay products, and 

transuranics (recycled uranium contaminants) that give rise to gamma, beta, and 

some neutron exposures. 

	 The FMPC had a routine monitoring program for measuring employees’ external 

radiation exposures to gamma and beta radiation, and the results of that 

monitoring program are available to NIOSH. In addition, the FMPC made 

measurements of the relative dose rates due to neutron and gamma radiation 

near materials that gave rise to neutrons. Based on this, NIOSH concluded that 

doses due to external radiation exposure could be reconstructed with sufficient 

accuracy. 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Page 3 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC), Fernald, Ohio 
	 NIOSH concluded that the dose associated with medical X-ray exams, if required 

as a condition of employment and administered onsite, can be bound by using 

information in the Technical Basis Document of the Fernald Environmental 

Management Project – Occupational Medical Dose. Therefore, it is feasible to 

reconstruct occupational medical dose for workers at the FMPC during the period 

from January 1, 1968, through December 31, 1978, with sufficient accuracy 

	 The Board concluded, and the NIOSH Director concurred, that NIOSH lacks 

sufficient information, which includes specific biological monitoring data, sufficient 

air monitoring information, sufficient process and radiological source information, 

and surrogate data from similar operations at other sites that would allow it to 

estimate the potential internal radiological exposures to thorium and its decay 

products for all workers who worked at the FMPC during the period from January 

1, 1968, through December 31, 1978. 

	 Although NIOSH found that it is not possible to completely reconstruct radiation 

doses for the proposed class, NIOSH intends to use any internal and external 

monitoring data that may become available for an individual claim (and that can 

be interpreted using existing NIOSH dose reconstruction processes or 

procedures) to support a partial dose reconstruction for non-presumptive cancers 

and/or cases that have less than 250 work days of employment. Therefore, dose 

reconstructions for individuals employed at the FMPC during the period from 

January 1, 1968, through December 31, 1978, but who do not qualify for 

inclusion in the SEC, may be performed using these data as appropriate. 

	 Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(1), NIOSH determined that there is insufficient 

information to either: (1) estimate the maximum radiation dose, for every type of 

cancer for which radiation doses are reconstructed, that could have been 

incurred under plausible circumstances by any member of the class; or (2) 

estimate the radiation doses of members of the class more precisely than a 

maximum dose estimate. 

	 The NIOSH Director concurred with the Board and recommended the proposed 

class for addition to the SEC. 

Health Endangerment 

The Secretary established the health endangerment determination for the class of 

employees covered by this report based upon the findings summarized below. 

(1) Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3), NIOSH established that there is a 

reasonable likelihood that such radiation doses may have endangered the 

health of members of the class. Pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii), 

NIOSH specified a minimum duration of employment to satisfy this health 

endangerment criterion as “having been employed for a number of work days 

aggregating at least 250 work days within the parameters established for this 

class or in combination with work days within the parameters (excluding 

aggregate work day requirements) established for one or more other classes 

of employees in the Cohort.” 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Page 4 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC), Fernald, Ohio 
 

(2) NIOSH did not identify any evidence from the petitioners or from other 

resources that would establish that the class was exposed to radiation during 

a discrete incident likely to have involved exceptionally high-level exposures, 

such as a nuclear criticality incident, as defined under 42 C.F.R. § 

83.13(c)(3)(i). 

(3) The Board concurred with NIOSH’s finding that the health of the class may 

have been endangered and defined the class according to the 250-work day 

requirement specified under 42 C.F.R. § 83.13(c)(3)(ii). 

V. Effect and Effective Date of Designation 

The Secretary submits this report on the designation of one additional class to the 

SEC for review by Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 7384l(14)(C)(ii) and 

7384q(c)(2)(A), as amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in 

scattered sections of 42 U.S.C.). Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 7384l(14)(C)(ii), as 

amended by the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 42 

U.S.C.), the designation in this report will become effective 30 days after the date of 

this report’s submission to Congress “unless Congress otherwise provides.” 

VI. Administrative Review of Designation 

The health endangerment determination of the designation provided in this report 

may be subject to an administrative review within HHS, pursuant to 42 C.F.R. § 

83.18(a). On the basis of such a review, if the Secretary decides to expand the class 

of employees covered by this designation, the Secretary would transmit a 

supplementary report to Congress providing the expanded employee class definition 

and the criteria and findings on which the decision was based. 

HHS Special Exposure Cohort Designation: Page 5 

Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC), Fernald, Ohio